In an era where data is the new currency, customer research remains a stubborn bottleneck for many enterprises. The traditional process—laden with weeks of manual interviews and analysis—often leaves product teams and strategists waiting too long to act. Enter Strella, an AI-powered customer research platform that is rewriting this narrative with a bold vision: making qualitative research continuous, scalable, and remarkably faster without compromising depth.
Just over a year after emerging from stealth, Strella announced a $14 million Series A funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, joined by Decibel Partners, Bain Future Backed Ventures, MVP Ventures, and 645 Ventures. This infusion of capital is earmarked to accelerate Strella’s expansion into mobile research capabilities and significantly grow its engineering team—signaling a commitment to innovate the very fabric of how companies gather and interpret customer feedback.
Founded with the premise that research need not be a trade-off between speed and insight, Strella’s platform leverages sophisticated AI to automate the most tedious aspects of user interviews. Its AI moderator dynamically adapts to responses, asking deeper, more human-like questions that unlock the motivations behind user behavior—essentially replicating the nuances of a skilled researcher at a fraction of the time and cost.
“We built Strella to make research faster, smarter, and more human—proving that teams no longer have to choose between speed and depth. By combining AI with human insight, we’re creating a new standard where qualitative research is continuous, scalable, and empowers confident decisions at every level of an organization,” says Lydia Hylton, CEO and Co-founder of Strella.
The platform’s impact is evident: since its stealth reveal in October 2024, Strella has quadrupled its customer base and grown revenue tenfold. Its clients span high-profile companies such as Amazon, Duolingo, Apollo GraphQL, and Chobani, conducting thousands of AI-assisted interviews that reportedly cut down research time by 90% on average.
Brian Santiago, Senior Product Design Manager at Apollo GraphQL, highlights the shift in operational efficiency and data quality: “Before Strella, studies took weeks. Now we get insights in a day—sometimes in just a few hours. And because participants open up more with the AI moderator, the feedback is deeper and more honest. Research is now faster, richer, and easier to access across our team.”
This ability to scale qualitative research without losing depth taps into a broader technological wave fueled by advancements in large language models and voice recognition. Lindsey Li, Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners, elaborates: “Strella makes it possible to do user interviews at a scale, speed, and cost that was impossible before LLMs and also expands the universe of use cases. This macro trend combined with ever-improving voice models places Strella at the center of multiple compelling technological tailwinds. We are especially impressed by the team’s combination of technical depth and commercial expertise, and by Strella’s ability to unite AI with human insight. The team is setting a new standard for qualitative research.”
Editorial Perspective
Strella’s approach highlights a critical inflection point in customer research, where AI doesn’t merely automate but enhances human understanding by blending speed with empathy. The traditional divide between quantitative scale and qualitative nuance is narrowing—offering enterprises a richer, more dynamic view of their customers.
What makes Strella’s proposition compelling is not just the technology but the timing. In an age where user needs evolve rapidly and competition demands agility, companies can no longer afford to wait weeks for actionable insights. Strella’s AI-native model democratizes research, enabling product and design teams—from startups to Fortune 500 giants—to embed customer understanding directly into their decision-making processes at unprecedented speed.
Looking ahead, Strella’s push into mobile research could be a game-changer. Mobile remains the dominant channel for consumer interaction, yet many research tools have lagged in capturing this space with the nuance and immediacy required. By expanding here, Strella positions itself to become the backbone of continuous, real-world user insight.
Moreover, the involvement of marquee investors like Bessemer and Bain Future Backed Ventures underscores strong market confidence in Strella’s potential. If the startup continues to marry its AI prowess with a keen understanding of user psychology, it may well redefine not just how research is done but how companies innovate and empathize with their customers in the AI era.
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